Tension between the US and Venezuelan have risen in recent days after another failed attempt by the US-backed opposition to oust embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Many in the US have called for a military response to the situation. Thus far that has been limited to the deployment of hospital ships to treated some of the millions of Venezuelans who have fled political and economic turmoil at home.

(Reuters) - As tensions with Venezuela mount, the United States is planning to announce on Tuesday the deployment of a military hospital ship to the region, US officials say, in the latest sign of the Pentagon's limited, and targeted, involvement in the crisis.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not specify where in the region the ship would travel to. Last year, a hospital ship — the USNS Comfort — cared for Venezuelan refugees and others as it stopped in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Honduras.

After leaving Norfolk, Virginia, on October 10, the Comfort took on patients during stops in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Honduras as part of Operation Enduring Promise, which ended in December. Crew aboard the Comfort work with local officials to provide basic care and surgeries that many patients couldn't otherwise access or afford.

The US military's Southern Command, which oversees US forces in Latin America, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deployment will fall far short of satisfying some of President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans, who have called for more robust US military support to Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who seeks to oust President Nicolas Maduro. The United States and some 50 countries recognize Guaido as the legitimate head of state.

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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has called for the deployment of a US aircraft carrier, something critics say is tantamount to threatening US military intervention to topple Maduro. President Donald Trump has invested considerable political capital in the diplomatic and economic intervention in the Venezuela crisis. But he has not signaled an intent to use military force.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, however, stressed last week that the Pentagon has been planning a full range of military options.

A crew member with Colombian patients after their surgery aboard the USNS Comfort.
Fernando Vergara/Associated Press

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The announcement of the hospital ship's deployment would come the same day that US Vice President Mike Pence was expected to offer new incentives to Venezuela's military to turn against Maduro, responding to an attempted uprising that fizzled out last week.

In a speech at the State Department scheduled for 3:25 pm, Pence will also warn that the United States will soon move to impose sanctions on 25 additional magistrates on Venezuela's supreme court, a senior administration official said.

Pence will also offer assistance for refugees who have fled the country, and an economic aid package contingent on a political transition, according to the official.

Guaido, the president of the country's national assembly, invoked Venezuela's constitution in January to declare himself interim president of the country, arguing that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Maduro — who has said Guaido is a puppet of Washington — has sought to show that the military remains on his side, but opposition leaders and US officials have said that support is tenuous.